How Rensol Answered Hospitality Employer’s Problem on Underperforming Workers due to Excessive Internet Use: A Case Study

Client Problem: Restaurant owner complains of deployed employees exhibiting habitual neglect of duty with excessive internet use during work hours

• A restaurant owner complained a bulk of new employees from the Philippines working for his Mediterranean restaurant chain who are using the internet excessively during work hours.
• A customer shared on social media her awful experience on the said restaurant, claiming that its workers were busily using their phone instead of accommodating their customers efficiently.
• The said post went viral online and gained bad reviews. Restaurant sales fluctuated dramatically.

RENSOL’s Solution: Disciplinary Action / Recommendation / Assessment of Internet Behavior

• Workers were reprimanded and were given a memo to refrain from using any gadget during working hours.
• The agency sent recommendations on how to manage internet behavior in their workplace based on company’s standards on talent management.
• Screening of candidates for hospitality services started to include assessment on their internet behavior and background check on social media activity.

Excessive internet usage is a form of underperformance for taking wages to work employees didn’t render. The parameters of excessiveness may vary, but basically, internet usage are lost hours and is categorizable as “time theft.” This essentially leads to potential loss of productivity and a detrimental effect to customer service.

After all, Internet access in the workplace is only a privilege but never a right to exploit.

Case on Point: A Tasty Course of Action for a Restaurant Chain

A viral post involved a customer of a big restaurant chain in the Mediterranean who complained about inefficient service after waiting for more than an hour for the meal of her kids.  After the long wait, they surprisingly received the wrong order because their request was apparently not available all the while. The confrontation scene was recorded by another customer and was shared on various social networking sites and eventually, made rounds online.

This had generated bad reviews for the restaurant and had even landed on the local news. The publicity caused serious damage to their reputation that took them over a quarter to recover.

The customer in the said video was wailing over staff members of the restaurant who are frequently checking on their smartphones while at work. She claimed that they are not accommodating, and they are spending most of their time on their phone rather than attending to their customers.

Because of shortage in manpower and increasing demand at work, the restaurant could neither suspend nor dismiss them. The company sought the help of Rensol, the partner recruitment agency in The Philippines, for necessary course of actions to be taken.

Rensol Intervention

Reprimanded workers were lucky that there is no existing policy on internet usage in the said restaurant. Dismissal is to no avail as it will be unfair for the employees due to lack of regulation. In lieu with that, Rensol responded by:

1. Issuing all concerned workers a memo that they could no longer use any gadget during working hours, except for mid-breaks and that they should abide by the new rules regarding internet usage that will be imposed by the company. Failure to follow the said warning guaranteed sanctions from the recruitment agency via The Philippine Labor Laws which may affect their future participation to overseas employment program.
2. Rensol discouraged the client to terminate their workers because they believe that this pose a culture of fear in their workplace that might affect their productivity. The partner recruitment agency helped the restaurant chain to craft clear policies and measures to rehabilitate negative behaviors, which is more cost- effective.
3. Hospitality recruiters of Rensol started to deliberately ask candidates’ internet behavior as part of assessment. Internet misuse tendencies are easily detectable during the recruitment process. We also include background check on their social media accounts to know how frequent and how long do they spend surfing online. This way, we can easily screen out those who are potential internet abusers.

The role played by Rensol as a partner Philippine recruitment agency for the Mediterranean restaurant chain is a crucial intervention to accommodate employee and employer internet concerns. Rensol, in this case, served as a critical link to abridge the gap between two parties with regards to their needs and culture. This role may have been beyond their mandate to just provide manpower, but with their dedication to foster good relationship with their global partners and their consistent liability to all their deployed employees, Rensol managed this case ethically and efficiently, with their strong expertise in talent management.

ABOUT THE COMPANY: Rensol Recruitment and Consulting, Inc. is the fastest growing recruitment agency in The Philippines. A career consultant that aims to go above and beyond the level of expectations of both the aspirations of the candidates and the dream team standards of employers through providing exceptional opportunities and unparalleled quality-driven recruitment services.

Genisis John Del Rosario - Business Development Manager

“Genz” is a self-made Entrepreneur and a Seasoned Business Development Professional with an extensive background in all levels of sales and business development. He is a dedicated and enthusiastic manager with more than 6 years of experience in research and lead generation from the initial phase to completion. He is also flexible and empathic with a strong work ethic and professional demeanor.